Freezing tray with molds



July 31, 1956 R. R. MARTIN 2,756,567

I FREEZING TRAY WITH MOLDS Filed Dec. 8, 1952 INVENTOR. flay: a zdfifj farz z'h United States Patent FREEZING TRAY WITH MOLDS Raymond R. Martin, Albion, Mich.

Application December 8, 1952, Serial No. 324,641

3 Claims. (Cl. 62-1085) This invention relates broadly to molding apparatus, and in its specific phases to new and useful improvements in freezing trays.

In the past it has been the common practice to make practically all freezing trays, for home electric and gas refrigerators, in the form of a pan with a removable grid member crosswise and lengthwise of same for forming cubes of ice. That of course is not suitable for separate and decorative form freezing of foodstuffs. A few attempts have been made to meet this situation such as by using open top individual metal cups spot welded to the upper face of a metal carrier member, a flat plate having beaded side edges with molds depressed in the upper surface of same, said flat plate being carried by and supportable on said beaded edges in the groove of a cover member which is similar to an upside down tray, and by means of a heavy section solid rubber tray with deep mold depressions in its upper surface. The fact that such constructions are either unhandy, diflicult to manufacture, or generally unsatisfactory to use, lead to the conception and development of the present invention.

In the entertainment of both children and adults in the home, it is frequently desirable to serve ice cream, sherbet, ices, or the like, molded into attractive shapes, and the present invention is designed to provide a novel freezing tray permitting the formation of such articles in the usual home used refrigerator.

Accordingly among the objects of the present invention is the provision of a tray which embodies a pan corresponding in size and shape to the usual pans in which ice cubes are frozen, and a cover permanently closing the top of said pan, said cover having various differently shaped depressed portions providing open top molds in which to freeze the desired articles. Both the pan and the cover, in preferred construction, are formed from a moderately rigid but firm and flexible material, preferably in the form of a plastic material, such as either natural or synthetic rubber, to facilitate removal of the molded articles.

Another object of the invention is to provide novel means for supporting the bottoms of said molds in the cover member against distortional sagging under the weight of the mold contents.

Another object is to provide a novel construction in which the above mentioned mold supporting means extends between the upper surface of the pan bottom and the mold bottoms. Thus, by pressing upward against the pan bottom under any selected mold, said pan bottom will be inwardly distorted and this distortion will be transmitted by the supporting means to the selected mold, thus aiding materially in selectively ejecting the frozen article from said mold.

A further object is to provide the aforesaid mold supporting means in the form of individual pillars, which are smaller than the bottom of said molds, and which extend from the upper surface of the pan bottom to the mold bottoms, and are formed integrally with one of the two sections of the device, said pillars preferably being integral with the pan section.

Still further objects and advantages of the invention will appear as the description proceeds.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the invention, then, consists of the molding means hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the annexed drawing and the following description setting forth in detail certain means for carrying out the invention, such disclosed means illustrating, however, but one of various ways in which the principle of the invention may be used.

In the annexed drawing:

Figure l is a top plan view' of a freezing tray showing a few of the many depressed configurations which the molds may have.

Figures 2 and 3 are respectively a side elevation and an end elevation of the freezing tray.

Figure 4 is an enlarged fragmentary longitudinal sectional view taken partially on line 4-4 and partially on line 4a4a of Figure 1 looking in the direction of the arrows.

The construction shown in the drawing may be considered as a preferred one and will be rather specifically described, but it is to be understood that variations in the shape and number of the freezing depressions as well as other details may be made within the scope of the invention as set forth.

A pan 5 is provided, and which in preferred construction for widespread use, will be of the general size and shape of an ordinary ice cube freezing pan of a domestic or home used refrigerator. This pan is formed from a flexible material, and preferably from rubber or other suitable plastic materal, so cured that it is moderately rigid and yet possesses suflicient elasticity for use as hereinafter set forth. The pan bottom 6 is integralwith the side walls 7 and end walls 8, and said walls 7 and 8 have integral outwardly projecting flanges 9 at their upper edges.

A one-piece cover 10, preferably formed from the same material as the pan 5, permanently closes the top of said pan 5 and is cemented, vulcanized, or otherwise suitably fastened to the flanges 9. This cover is formed with a plurality of depressed portions 11 which provide molds 16-16 for truck simulations and two molds 1717 for automobile simulations. However, there may be any desired number of the molds, and they may be designed to mold simulations of many different items.

The bottoms 18 of the molds in preferred construction, are spaced above the pan bottom 6, and supports 19, preferably in the form of an individual pillar for each mold, are provided for said bottoms 18. These supports extend between the upper face of the pan bottom 6 and the mold bottoms 18 and thus substantially prevent distortional sagging of said mold bottoms under the weight of the mold contents. Moreover, the supports 19 serve to transmit thumb or finger pressure from the pan bottom 6 to the mold bottoms 18 when removing the frozen articles from the molds, thereby greatly facilitating removal. For

instance, inward pressure on the pan bottom 6 under any but if desired they can be integral with the cover 10, or a portion of saidpillars can be integral with said pan and another portion integral with said cover, with the abutting ends of said pillars preferably joined together, and it is to be considered that the showing in the drawing is diagrammatic of these various constructions.

In constructing the assembly of the present invention, I prefer to separately mold and finish prepare the pan and the cover 10, with the latter of a width and length such that its side and end edges will overlie the outturned flanges 9 of pan 5. The side and end edges of the cover are then permanently joined to the outturned flanges 9 of the pan 5 by cementing, vulcanizing, or the like, and preferably in manner such that the space between the pan and cover are air tight to preserve the light weight construction, and .avoid the necessity of removing frozen material from therebetween which otherwise would lead to an unsanitary condition.

From the foregoing it will be seen that in the field of freezing trays novel and effective provision of a highly satisfactory and light weight construction has been made for attaining the desired ends, wherein such construction preferably involves making said pan and cover of relatively uniform thickness stock throughout and normally in the range of to ,43, and while there is herein shown and described a preferred embodiment of the improved freezing tray of the present invention, it is nevertheless to be understood that various minor changes may be made therein, some of which have been described above, without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention.

Other modes of applying the principle of my invention may be employed instead of those explained, changes being made as regards the article and combinations herein disclosed, provided the means stated by any of the following claims or the equivalent of such stated means be employed.

I therefore particularly point out and distinctly claim as my invention:

1. A freezing tray of the character described, comprising a flexible but relatively firm construction pan section with a bottom which is of selectively depressable construction, a flexible cover section fitting and permanently closing the top of said pan section, said cover section having depressed portions extending down toward the bottom of said pan section and constituting individual molds, and an individual supporting means for the bottom of each of said molds, said supporting means extending between said mold bottoms of said cover section and said pan section bottom, whereby said individual supporting means acts not only to support said individual molds but also to transmit selective inward flexing of said pan section bottom to the bottom of said molds to facilitate selective removal of the molded articles, said supporting means for said individual molds comprising individual supporting pillars of substantially truncated cone shape with the base of same on said pan section, at least a portion of each of said pillars being integral with one of said sections and secured to the other of said sections.

2. A freezing tray of the character described, comprising a flexible but relatively firm construction pan section with a bottom which is of selectively depressable construction, a flexible cover section fitting and permanently closing the top of said pan section, said cover section having depressed portions extending down toward the bottom of said pan section and constituting individual molds, and an individual supporting means for the bottom of each of said molds, said supporting means extending between said mold bottoms of said cover section and said pan section bottom, whereby said individual supporting means acts not only to support said individual molds but also to transmit selective inward flexing of said pan section bottom to the bottom of said molds to facilitate selective removal of the molded articles, said supporting means for said individual molds comprising individual supporting pillars, said pillars being smaller than the bottom of the mold they individually support, and integral with the bottom of said pan section, said pillars being secured to the bottoms of said molds.

3. A freezing tray of unitary construction, consisting of a substantially uniform thickness pan section formed from a firm but flexible plastic material such as rubber, a cover section of substantially uniform thickness formed from a firm but flexible plastic material such as rubber, said cover section being joined to said pan section in manner forming a sealed chamber and having depressed portions extending down into and toward the bottom of said pan section and constituting open top molds, and individual pillars extending between the bottom of said pan section and the bottom of each of said molds for supporting the latter and also serving to selectively transmit any inward flexing of said pan section bottom to the bottom of an individual mold thereabove to facilitate selective removal of articles which have been formed in said molds, said pan section also being moderately rigid, elastic, and self supporting with a selectively depressable bottom, said cover section being fixedly joined to said pan section at the edges of same, and said pillars being smaller than said mold bottoms to facilitate the application of concentrated ejection force on the solid contents of said molds, said pillars also individually joining said mold bottoms to said pan section.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,873,218 Scott Aug. 23, 1932 1,879,368 Lovell Sept. 27, 1932 2,218,724 Rudd Oct. 22, 1940 2,342,743 Lutes Feb. 29, 1944 2,377,436 Mallard June 5, 1945 2,389,317 Kitto Nov. 20, 1945 2,404,973 Mallard July 30, 1946 2,474,936 Elliott July 5, 1949 2,505,947 De Brooke May 2, 1950 2,588,222 Ekkebus Mar. 4, 1952 

